Railway-switch



f (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

. A. F. SGHINNER.

RAILWAY SWITCH.

No. 527,293. Patented oet. 9, 1894.

ELSA.

Z7 25 ZZ 2% Z5 W EMI mi E? y2 (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet' 2.

A. F. SCHINNER.

RAILWAY SWITCH. No. 527,293. Patented Oct. 9, 1894.

umm STATES PATENT GFFICE.

AUGUSTIN F. soniNNnn, or MILWAUKEE, wisconsin.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 527,293, dated October 9, 1894. t Application filed March 28', 1894. Serial No. 505,463. (No model.)

` To a/ZZ whom 1f/'may concern: 'l

' of Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of `Wisconsin, have inventedv a new and useful Improvement in Railway-Switches, of which the following is a description, refer? ence being had to the accompanying drawings, which are a part of this specification.

My invention has relation to improvements in railway switches. t

The invention has particular reference to i improvements in the device covered by my `Letters Patent No. 514,037, dated February The improvements consist in the devices and their parts, or equivalents, ashereinafter more fuliy described and claimed. i

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1, is an elevation of the switch-operatin g magnets, and devices therewith for securing aclosure of the electric circuits. Fig. 2, is a plan View of Fig. 1, with a part broken away. Fig. 3, is an elevation of the reverse side to that shown in Fig.`1. Fig. 4, is a transverse section on an enlarged scale taken on the line 4-4of Fig. 3. Fig. 5, is a plan view showing a con-` struction to prevent the locking pins from binding'in the recesses therefor in the reciprocating core. Fig. 6, is an elevation of Fig. 5. Fig. 7, is a plan view of railroad track and switch; and Fig. 8 is a detail of the core 12, showing the arm 13 rigid therewith for shifting the tracks 51.

Like numerals of reference denote like parts throughout the several views.

On Sheet 1 of the drawings, the device is shown as adaptable to street car railways,

only a fragment of one of the tracks being shown. It will be understood, however, that the arrangement of the tracks in this form is exactly in accordance with the trackway shown in my former Letters Patent No.` 514,037, dated February 6, 1894, with a contact bar arranged therebetween in the roadbed, similar to that shown and described in said Letters Patent, the contact bar being electrically energized by suitable movable and controllable devices on the cars, when desired, asa car passes over the plate, by contact therewith.

Referring now `particularly to Sheet 1 of the drawings, the numeral 8 indicates a section of one of themain rails of the track; 9, a section of one of the siding rails, and the `energizing switch point. Beneath the road-bed, onthe side where the switch point `is located,are disposed two electro-magnets 11, 11, consisting of coils of wire which sur-` round a movable core 12, of magnetizable material. `The switch point is provided with a downward extending arm 13, which arm passes through a transverse elongated slot 14,

and its lower end terminates just above the movable core 12, and" in close proximity j thereto.

An insulated wire 15 leads from the central contact bar (not shown) to a metal post 16.

A tilting and sliding metal bar 17 is provided medially with an elongated longitudinal slot 18, by which it is pivoted and supported ou the post 16, conveniently by means of a pin w19 `fixed in the post, and projecting into the slot of the bar. T The bar 17 is provided with upward projecting fingers 20, 20, one near each end, adapted severally to engage fingers 21, 2l, fixed in thecore 12. Beneath the extremities of the bar 17 are metal plates 22, 22. These plates,`as well as the supportsfor the magnets, are insulated by means of the `insulating strip 23. Metal posts 24, 24 extend upward from the insulating strip 23 and are formed or provided at their upper ends ywith metallic spring plates 25, 25, parallel with and immediately above the plates 22. The metal plates 22, 22 are inversely connected electricallywith the magnets 11, 11 by the insulated conductors 26 and 27, respectively, which magnets are in turn electrically connectedto a rail of the railway track by the wires 28 and 29, respectively, and are thereby grounded, thus providing a circuit or discharge for an electric current `through the magnets. Pins 30, 30 projectout laterally from one face of` the bar 17, and on these pins are journaled small rollers 31, 3l, which rollers are adapted to pass alternately `between sets of the plates 22 and 25,saidplates IOO arm 37. Another bar 38 is arrangedbetween ally secured thereto, by a pin 33, a bar 34.. This bar -is provided 'with forward-proj e'cting pins 35, 35 which pins pass through apertures in another shorter bar 36, said bar 36 formed rigid with the post or upright 32 by an integral forwardrand upward projecting and above the bars 34 and 36. This bar 38 has pivoted thereto the upper-ends of arms 39, 39, the lower ends of said arms being piv'oted to the bar 36, and provided with laterallyextending lugs 40, 40, which lugs rest on the u pins 35 of the pivoted bar 34. An enlarged medial portion of the core 121s provided with recesses 41, 4l which` are adapted alternately to receive the respective pins35, .35,

Projecting from the outer Vends of the magnets are supplemental metallic cores 42, 42, which `are bent around at right angles so as to bring their ends in-to alignment with the angular endsof the bar 38.

In the opera-tion of ymy device, when the vmagnet llat the right in Fig. 1 is energized, and when the parts are in the position there shown, the core will be drawn into the magnet, andthe finger 20 (at the right) being in contact with the adjacent pin 2l, the bar 17 is drawn thereby toward the right. It will beapparent that as the roller 31 at the left hand end of 'bar 17 is held between the plates 22 and 25, said ,end of the bar l7 is prevented from intermittingly breaking contact with the plate 22. In my former Letters Patent hereinbefore referred to the ends of the bar 17 alternately rested upon the pla'tessimilar to plates 22, 22, the ends of the bar being unprovided with the rollers, and the plates .25 also being lomitted from the construction. In that form, therefore,no mean-s were provided for preventing the ends of the tilting and sliding bar from intermittingly breaking conl nectionfwith the metallic plate similar to 22,

v which was quite liable -to occur through ljoltin-g of the parts occasioned by heavy travel on the road-bed, or bythe passage of the car itself along the tracks. As the bar 17 is drawn y to theright in the manner just explained, the pin 20 thereof is by electric energy `held in contact with the adjacent pin 2l, until lthe core and switch point have reached thelimit of .their movements to the right, and by the same energy is held in that position until the electric circuit is broken, which occurs when the electric energy is no longer supplied from the carto the plate between the tracks. When l, the bar 17 has :thus `reached the limit of its movement toward the righ-t, the roller -31 at the left passes from between the plates 22 and 2.5,and thereupon, by gravity, the longerarm of the bar 1'7 (at the right) falls down so as to bring the roller 30 at the right in position to pass between the plates 22 and 25 at the right, when the bar 17 is drawn toward the left in its lnext movement. When the -electric magnet 11 at theright is energized in the manner explained, and the bar 17 is drawn toward lthe right, other actions take place.

Y the recesses 41 of the core into alignment with the right hand pin 35, said pin by the turning of the bar 34 on its pivot will be made to enter and engage the recess 41, and thereby hold the core locked in its position to the right. The right hand end of bar 38 is also attracted by the corresponding supplemental core 42, and said bar thereby caused to be moved rectilinearly toward the right, thereby causing the arms 39 to be turned to oblique positions.

Inasmuch as the right hand end of bar 34 is swung inward in the manner kjust explained, and inasmuch as the -arms 39 rest on the pins 35 of this bar, the lug 40 of the right hand arm 3.9 will when the bar 3.8 is swung inward as just described engage a shoulder 43 of the 4pin 35, whereby the bar .34 is held to its adjusted position. It will of course be understood that both of the pins 35 lare provided with these shoulders 43. The left hand lar reference to st-reet-car railways, as it is necessary that the core 12 should khave-considerable play, before movement is imparted to `therswitch point, and as .the swingef :the switch point is necessarily limited the arm 13 is not connected directly to the core, but its lower end extends in close proximity thereto, and is operated by pins 44, 44 arranged a suitable distance apart, and adapted to respectively engage the end of .the arm 13 on 'the reverse movements of the core, and thereby turn the switch.

When the longer right hand end ofthe bar 17 has falle-n by gravity in the manner explained, and the roller contacts with the plate 22, ready for passage between sai-d plate and the upper plate 25, in this position the electric circuit at this point is complete from the plate between the railway tracks through the wire 15, post 1 6, ba-r 17, plate .22 at the right, wire 26, magnet 11 (at the lef-t) and wire 28, .so that when the circuit is again closed through the plate between the tracks,

the movement of the core and of the switch 1 point, will, by electric energy, be reversed. i

The moment such contactY with the plateis made, of course the core and the bar y17 are drawn toward the left, and exactly the `same operation takes place at that end, as that j ust described in regard to the right hand .en-d.

In Figs. 5 and 6 the construction is the 'same as in the other ii-gures of the drawings, ex-

cepting that the pins 35 instead `of being formed rigid with the bar 34 and projecting forwardly therefrom, have their inner ends bent at right angles, and extended under the bar 34, and pivoted to post-s 45, 45, said pivoted ends provided with segmentally arranged teeth, indicated by the numerals 46, 46. lar teeth on the ends of arms 47, 47, also pivoted to theposts 45, 4,5, the opposite ends of said arms provided with upward extending pins 48,48,which Work in elongated slots 49, 49 in the bar. This arrangement of the pins 35 I deem an improvement over the construction shown in other figures of the drawings. When the pins 35 proj ect rigidly from the bar 34, the turning of said bar horizontally on its pivot 33 would have a tendency to bind whichever pin that maybe engaginga recess 41, in withdrawing the pin from the recess. By the arrangement of the intermeshing segmental teeth shown in Figs. 5 and 6, however, this difficulty, it is thought, is successfully overcome. In Fig. 5 I also show the fingers 21, 21 as extending laterally from the core 12, instead of depending therefrom as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. This arrangement, perhaps, will be found advantageous, inasmuch as the pins 20 when engaged by fingers 21, arranged in this manner, will have a greater energized surface to bear against, and consequently a more effective means provided for holding the ends of the bar 17 in their raised position.

In Fig. '7, is illustrated a plan view of the permanent tracks of a steam railroad, with the movable tracks adjacent. The contact bars intermediate the tracks, which bars were not shown on Sheet 1 of the drawings, are also illustrated in this view. The permanent tracks are indicated by the numerals 50, 50 the movable tracks by the numeral 5l, and intermediate contact bars by the numeral 52. The movable rails are united by an iron strap 53, in the usual manner. In order to throw these movable rails from one side to the other, the upward extending arm 13 of the core,is shown as connected medially therewith. This arm 13, at its lower end is connected rigidly to the core 12 (Fig. 8) instead of terminating short thereof as shown on Sheet 1. It is necessary that this arrangement should be employed in connection with steam railroads, in order to secure sufficient strength for throwing the switch rails. It is apparent that as the arm 13 is actuated by the movements of the core, the movable tracks are thrown from one side to the other.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is j 1. The combination, of electro-magnets, a reciprocative core, said core provided with projecting pins, a metal bar provided with -end rollers and having fingers, the bar being so mounted on a metal post connected electrically to an electric supply that a finger on the bar will engage a pin on the core, and the bar be moved endwise by the movement of These segmental teeth engage with simi-` the core, the bar being also adapted to tilt by gravity when its point of support on the post is changed by the movement of the bar endwise, opposite sets of metal plates between which the rollers at opposite ends of the bar are adapted to pass alternately as the bar is tilted in reverse directions, the sets of plates being connected electrically, respectively, to the electro-magnets, the bar and the plates being adapted by their connections and contacts to transmit an electric current from the electric supply to one or the other of the electro-magnets, substantiallyas set forth.

2. In a device for shifting a railroad switch, the combination, of electro-magnets, a metal core reciprocative endwise in the magnets, said core provided with recesses at suitable distances apart, the core being connected mechanically to, and so as by its movement to actuate, the switch, a shifting bar arranged to be shifted mechanically by the movement of the core, said bar in its alternate positions adapted to close and complete electric circuits through the magnets for actuating the core, and a horizontally swinging bar, its opposite ends being alternately drawn toward the respective magnets bythe alternate energizing of the magnets, said horizontally swinging bar provided with projecting iingers, each finger adapted alternately to enj gage a recess of the core as said recess `is brought into alignment therewith by the reciprocation of the core, substantially as set forth.

3. In a device for shiftinga railroad switch, the combination of electro-magnets, a metal core reciprocative endwise in the magnets, said core provided with recesses at suitable distances apart, the core being connected mechanically to, and so as by its movement to actuate, the switch, a shifting bar arranged to be shifted mechanically by the movement of the core, said bar in its alternate positions vided with openings through which the iingers of the swinging bar project, substantially as set forth.

4. In a device for shifting railroad switches, the combination, of electro-magnets, a metal core reciprocative endwise in the magnets, said core provided with recesses at a suitable distance apart, the core being connected mechanically to, and so as by its movement to actuate, the switch, a shifting bar arranged to be shifted mechanically by the movement IOO of the core, said bar in its alternate positions' the' teeth of the vangular arms, eachgpin of an adapted to close and complete electric cirfangular arm adapted to Ae1'1gagea recess of. cuits through-the magnets for actuating the thecore asa recess is brought into alignment V1. core, a horizontally swingingv bar, its VoppofA therewith by thegrecip-rocation of the core,

5 site end s beingalternately drawn towtrd'theA f substantially as set'fort-h.-

respective magnets by the alternate energiz- In testimony whereof I ax [ny signature in ing of the magnets, pivoted arms each havpresence of two'witnesses. 'ing one end bent at an angle to forma pin, .Y AUGUSTIN F SCHINNER and its other end formed into segmental teeth, 1 v

Io and through pivoted arms connected to the Witnesses:

swinging bar and operated thereby, said arms ARTHUR L. MORSELL, provided at one end with teeth meshing with ANNA V. FAUsT. 

